Union Pacific Resources Group agreed to pay about $59 millionfor Occidental Petroleum’s interests in four oil and gas fields insouthwest Wyoming, 23 producing wells in Louisiana, increasedownership in the Masters Creek Gas Plant and nearly 127,000 netacres in the Louisiana extension of the Austin Chalk trend.
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HI Acquires Four SoCal Edison Plants
Houston Industries Power Generation (HIPG) completed its $237million acquisition of four gas-fired generating plants totaling2,276 MW from Southern California Edison. HIPG had submitted thewinning bids for SCE’s Ellwood, Mandalay, Etiwanda and Cool Waterplants, which have been renamed Oeste, Ocean Vista, Mountain Vistaand Alta Power, respectively.
Approval Denied BC Gas Southern Crossing Project
The British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) has voted downthe BC Gas Southern Crossing Pipeline, a $350 million pipeline thatwould have paralleled the existing BC Gas mainline in southernBritish Columbia between Yahk and Oliver.
Seagull Buying TX, OK Assets
Seagull Energy agreed to buy an interest in a package of onshoreoil and gas properties in East Texas and western Oklahoma for $102million. The Houston-based company is buying the stock of privatelyheld BRG Petroleum of Tulsa, OK, and the assets of BRG’s limitedpartnerships and programs. The deal should be completed in about 60days. Proved oil and gas reserves total about 103 Bcfe. Dailyproduction from the properties net to the combined BRG interestslast year averaged about 18 MMcf/d of gas and 400 barrels of oiland natural gas liquids. Seagull has identified more than 160drilling locations and 60 recompletion opportunities, primarily inEast Texas. Seagull said it expects significant increases in bothproved reserves and production over the next few years.
Tengasco Completes Eastern Tennessee Pipe
Tengasco, Inc. of Knoxville, TN, completed its $10 million,28-mile pipeline in Eastern Tennessee. The pipeline originates atthe company’s Swan Creek Natural Gas Field into Rogersville, TN.Hawkins County Utilities District has connected Swan Creek to itsdistribution network. Three small tie-ins and testing of facilitiesremain before Tengasco furnishes gas to East Tennessee bymid-April.
Dominion Makes Bid for Archer
Dominion Resources unit Dominion Energy has agreed to pay (US)$128 million, C$7.60/share, to acquire Archer Resources Ltd. ofCalgary, AB. The deal gives Dominion Energy control of Archer’sdaily production of approximately 72 MMcf/d of gas and 1,500 b/dof oil in Alberta, plus Archer’s 16 processing facilities and over500,000 undeveloped acres. Dominion Energy said the deal, ifconsummated as expected, would increase its gas productioncapability by approximately 50%.
Chesapeake Buys Oxy Properties
Chesapeake Energy agreed to buy MC Panhandle Corp., a whollyowned subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum for $105 million cash forestimated proved reserves of about 100 Bcf in the West PanhandleField in Carson, Gray, Hutchinson and Moore counties of the TexasPanhandle. The reserves are 100% gas, have an estimatedreserve-to-production index of eight years, and are 85% proveddeveloped producing. During 1997, the wells produced about 13 Bcf(36 MMcf/d) net to Occidental’s interest from 256 wells, of whichall but two were Oxy operated wells. Chesapeake will assumeoperations of the acquired wells and will own an average workinginterest and net revenue interest of 99.5% and 85.2%, respectively.The transaction is effective Jan. 1, with closing scheduled May 29.With this purchase and pro forma for Chesapeake’s pending Hugotonand DLB transactions, Chesapeake’s estimated proved reserves willincrease to about 1,050 Bcfe. The Hugoton Energy Panhandleproperties to be acquired by Chesapeake were originally acquiredfrom Oxy in 1992. Chesapeake CEO Aubrey K. McClendon, said, “asresult, we expect to be able to operate these reunited propertiesvery efficiently out of Hugoton’s existing Pampa, TX, field office.For example, pro forma for these acquisitions, we expect our directproduction costs in the Texas Panhandle, excluding productiontaxes, to average approximately $0.30 per Mcf. These arehigh-margin, low-maintenance wells that we believe will provideaccretive results to our cash flow in 1998 and beyond.”